


Chapter VII: Diamond in the Rough, Part 2

by SallySS



Series: Love Trunk [9]
Category: Claymore
Genre: Bisexuality, Explicit Language, F/F, Homosexuality, Trans Male Character, wlw
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-02-12
Updated: 2017-02-12
Packaged: 2018-09-23 19:12:45
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,168
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9672308
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SallySS/pseuds/SallySS
Summary: Excerpts from the daily life of Rona, a new addition to the warriors known as Claymore, led by the mysterious Organization. Follow her through her struggles and triumphs as she fights to survive against the flesh craved yoma and awakened beings.-Rona and Stephanie gather their team and head out to cripple the hunting party before they can reach Stella.





	

 

“So who are these other warriors Branly mentioned? And what’s the hunting party?” Rona ran alongside her newfound sister in arms, their bodies just a blur on the landscape.    
  
“Heslin and Delilah? They’re trackers, numbers 32 and 47, they usually don’t fight. Hell, Delilah has never even used her yoki. They use her to gather information from humans and keep her on a constant intake of yoki suppressants. Heslin is good at faking his own death and apparently has an affinity for using poisons. Other than that, I’ve never met them, they work behind the scenes. I’m hesitant to bring them along for the sole reason that we may be intercepted by the hunting party if the organization has already released them, and those two would most certainly perish in the battle. The hunting party is a group of warriors specially trained for finding and eliminating those of us whom the organization has deemed problematic. Number 23 Abdima the Shackled, aptly named because she is bound and transported by the others until their objective is found. She seems to be impervious to physical pain and will not stop till the target is eliminated, no matter how critically wounded she is. If she can move, she can kill. Next, Number 10 Lune, the eyes of the organization; she’s quiet, but formidable. A master of yoki manipulation and timing, she catches her opponents off guard at the most crucial times, but lets her comrades do the dirty work. Finally, Number 3 Iris the Lustful. Money, power, sex, blood; you name it and she wants it. She doesn’t wear her issue uniform and while she carries her claymore, she is a weapon expert with hundreds of tricks up her sleeves. She is insanely fast but full of herself.”   
  
Rona nodded, taking in all the information and analyzing a battle plan if they were to come across these specialized warriors. “I would think the organization would have sent people to retrieve Stella before sending people to kill her.”   
  
“Apparently in her case, it’s better for them to lose her as a warrior than to have her awaken. The single digits are taught the strengths and weaknesses of abyssal ones from the past generations and the destructive power they possessed was unlike anything I could imagine. While I believe the intended use for teaching us these things was to help us combat them as warriors, Stella is sly enough to recognize a weakness and turn it into a strength, most likely using the information they gave us to formulate a plan of her own.”   
  
Rona glanced over at Stephanie a moment, a cold sweat coming over her. “You’re not saying what I think you are… are you?”   
  
A single nod was Rona’s response. Any information or tools the organization had to combat an Abyssal One would already have a countermeasure prepared. To try and fight Stella, were she to awaken, would result in an overwhelming failure.   
  
Rona’s eyes spotted a glint in the grass and she grabbed the arm of her superior, bringing them both to a sudden halt. A single clear wire was strung in the grass, catching the rising sun at just the perfect angle to occasionally reflect the smallest flash of light.   
  
“So what? we would have missed that easily.” Stephanie pulled her arm roughly out of Rona’s grasp.   
  
“That’s not the point, why is this place booby trapped?” Rona walked parallel to the tripwire, following its path to try and see where it lead. “It’s not on a main road, so it wasn’t set by thieves. It seems to be in a fairly arbitrary position for humans looking to capture animals or even other humans; almost a one in a million chance.”   
  
“So cut it and find out what it does.” Stephanie said with little amusement for the situation.   
  
Rona saw the string loop through an anchoring stick on the ground and shoot straight up into a tree. Using the target tree and another close by, she jumped back and forth, climbing into the foliage. Moving a branch out of the way, Rona found a woman fast asleep in the tree on a wide fat branch. The string was simply strung above her head with nothing more than a rock attached; something that would presumably fall and wake her up if someone tripped her wire.   
  
Stephanie walked over to the base of the tree and looked up, “Well? What the hell is it? Stop playing around we have to get a move on.”    
  
Rona turned around so as to project her voice in the other direction and hopefully not wake the sleeping lady. “It’s… just a woman.” Rona called back down, not sure if she should just leave her be and move on, but when she turned around the stranger had disappeared. “Huh? Wha- she’s gone! That’s impossible I didn’t even hear the branches shake!”   
  
Stephanie started laughing at her comrade. “Maybe I should be more worried about you not surviving the battle if you’re already seeing things that aren’t - ”   
  
She was cut off prematurely and Rona looked down to see Stephanie fending off that brown haired women’s wicked kicks that would have snapped a regular person in half by now. “Oh, she’s got some moves.”   
  
“Would you knock it the fuck off? I don’t have time to play with you, we need to get going!” Stephanie was using one of her bracers to easily deflect the rapid attacks of the other. When the only response she got was harder attacks, she lashed out and grabbed the strange woman by her hair and slammed her face into the ground. “It’s quite insulting to your superiors to not listen to them when they speak to you, especially with the power gap between us.”   
  
Rona hopped down, “Stephanie, that’s enough. I’m guessing this is Delilah?”   
  
“Yeah, number 47s are usually disrespectful little shits.” She growled, holding down the squirming tracker under her palm.

  
“Well you’re not going to have a cohesively working team by making them eat dirt; let her go.”   
  
Stephanie stood up and crossed her arms, watching the other get to her feet. “So where did you get the bright idea to just outright attack the number one, huh?”   
  
“Cause I’m not getting dragged on your suicide mission.” Delilah huffed, cleaning blood and dirt off her face.   
  
“Word travels fast.” Rona groaned, rapidly losing faith in pulling this mission off.    
  
“I’m not even a fighter, I’m a spy! I don’t even have a damn claymore! I saw the hunting party pass through here earlier, I know what’s going on and no way am I fighting those overpowered psychos!”    
  
Stephanie grabbed Delilah by her shirt and lifted her up, bringing her eye-to-eye, “You will follow the orders of your superior!”    
  
Rona put her hand on Stephanie’s pauldron. “Put her down. Delilah we’re not asking you to fight, Stephanie and I will handle that. But we may be fighting blind; if that’s the case, we need your help in telling us where to swing our swords.”   
  
Stephanie gave Rona a side eye, wondering what she was planning. She did reluctantly place Delilah back on her feet though.    
  
“If Abdima is bound, we need to catch the group by surprise so they can’t free her to fight, that greatly increases our odds. So two against two. Stephanie is the best at resisting her yoki being manipulated, so she will face off with Lune, hopefully pressing her enough she won’t be able to use her abilities easily. I will take on Iris. I have the most extensive knowledge of weapons of our group, and being a defensive type I can take a beating till Stephanie can come to assist me. Hopefully with whatever tricks Heslin can supply us, we may survive this.” Rona set her face, being completely serious.   
  
Stephanie tilted her head like she’d just heard the most idiotic plan in her life. “You’re going to get torn to shreds the moment you try and face off with Iris.”   
  
Delilah butted in. “Her plan makes sense, but I hope you’re one hell of a healer or you’re going to be picked off like nothing.”   
  
“I’ve seen how you do against awakened beings knife ear, I don’t think you’re ready to take on a single digit, especially not one that plays dirty.”   
  
Rona went a bit red in the face, “Look, I used to be a tactician alright, I know what I’m talking about.”   
  
“Maybe against humans, but you can’t even imagine the power difference a single number has between another when you get into those upper levels.” Delilah felt bad discouraging the nicer warrior, but she didn’t want to support a fatal plan.   
  
“I think it’s a great idea!” A chipper voice sounded from behind Stephanie. The group peeked out from around Steph to see the other warrior they had been seeking, Heslin, with his tuft of fluffy dirty blonde hair atop his head, the sides shaved short. “For a new recruit she sure catches on fast. She isn’t too hard on the eyes either.” He casually walked over to join the group.   
  
Stephanie huffed. “Talk to her like that again and you won’t have a tongue to speak with.”   
  
“Oh, threatening, like I haven’t heard that one before. You’re quite protective of her, girlfriends or something? How sweet.”   
  
Rona grabbed Stephanie by her armor before she could bolt away. “Relax, he’s just teasing you to get a reaction.”   
  
“What, 5… 6 sentences and I already got under your skin? Some leader.” Heslin went over and rested his forearm on Delilah’s shoulder, kicking one foot casually behind him, and leaning on the shorter tracker. “Divide and conquer is always a good strategy, play off your strengths, but I agree when they say you’re not strong enough to take on the number three, even to be her punching bag. And what do you do if Abdima gets free of her restraints? Try and fight 3 on two with one of them being a high ranked single digit?”   
  
Rona let Stephanie go carefully, making sure she wasn’t going to do anything drastic. “I presume you have a suggestion?”   
  
Heslin looked at Delilah, “Told you she learned fast.” He grabbed his pack of goodies and pulled out a vial of a clear thick liquid. “Thankfully with how low a level you are, i’m sure Iris will want to bat you around and play a bit, especially if she feels that Lune and Stephanie are evenly matched and that the number one is properly occupied. This is a concentrated tetrodotoxin, in humans one little knick would drop them like a sack of potatoes; they would become paralyzed, their heart would race, and then they would suffocate to death. But in warriors like us, it’s much more benign. She’ll become lethargic, her reaction time will slow, and she may lose feeling where she is cut. Your only job is to actually get a hit on her, from there the playing field might be a bit more even. But you’re going to have to give it everything you’ve got  _ just _ to get that one cut, because she’s not going to let you get close and you’re not a master of projectiles. Aaaand if Abdima proves to be a problem, i’ll put her down for a nap.” He chuckled.   
  
Stephanie snorted, “Still doesn’t explain why I wouldn’t be the one to take on Iris. I could tag her easily.”   
  
Delilah sneered, “Because, you stupid cow, Lune would paralyze Rona before their fight even begins, and with you focused on Iris, you’d be a sitting duck for both of their tricks.”    
  
The superior’s nostrils flared but she could see Rona looking at her from the side. “Grab your shit and move out, we’re going to have to catch up with them.” She walked off in the direction they were heading, but not in too speedy a pace, waiting for the others to catch up.   
  
Rona rubbed her neck and groaned. “Goddesses… Heslin, can you show me how to use this poison on the way there?”   
  
“Of course, but if we’re going to be going our  _ “Leader’s”  _ pace, someone’s going to need to carry Delilah, she can’t use her yoki.”   
  
“Oh right, I can piggyback you no problem. But it’s kinda bothering me… how did they get your hair to stay dark?” Rona looked it over and it looked so natural.   
  
“It’s just clothing dye, it washes out eventually, so they have to keep putting it in.” She went over to Rona’s back and helped her unhook her scabbard, handing the claymore over to Heslin to coat the blade, and hopped up on Rona’s back.    
  
“This is good, with you on my back we can talk about a strategy of how you can guide Stephanie incase Lune happens to mess with her.”   
  
Once prepared, they were on their way, running as fast as Heslin could keep up with them, trying to find the hunting party before the hunting party found Stella.

  
  



End file.
